Strama: 'Ref invented penalty'

Inter Coach Andrea Stramaccioni blamed the referee for their defeat to Atalanta. “It wasn’t a doubtful penalty. It was non-existent. He took responsibility and it wasn’t an error.”

Inter Coach Andrea Stramaccioni blamed the referee for their 4-3 defeat to Atalanta[12]. “It wasn’t a doubtful penalty. It was non-existent. He took responsibility and it wasn’t an error.”

The Nerazzurri were 3-1 up at San Siro when German Denis converted a penalty, which at first seemed to be awarded for an Andrea Ranocchia push, but it later emerged was for a Walter Samuel handling offence.

“We asked for five minutes what on earth it was for, but the referee took on a huge responsibility with this decision. The Atalanta players were going towards the corner, because they didn’t see anything either.

“I don’t think Gervasoni made a mistake. I think he took the responsibility upon himself by seeing something that did not happen. He took the responsibility for an event that did not exist.

“We thought it was Ranocchia’s challenge, but it turns out it was a Samuel handling offence, when it didn’t hit his hand. It’s incredible.

“We have so many problems and even lost Antonio Cassano to injury today. It’s true we have problems and some blame, but we are not so strong as to fight back against all these refereeing errors.

“I’ve been saying for half a season the referees make mistakes, but I’m not saying that anymore. I am new to Serie A, I came out of nowhere and they might send me back there at the end of the season, but I find it impossible that the referee could award a penalty like that.

“Inter are a big club and need to be respected. A mistake can happen when an incident is 50-50, these are dubious incidents. This, however, was something that never happened at all. It did not exist.

“After the win over Juventus we were very unlucky, but this time it was not luck. The referee took responsibility for making this decision based on nothing.”

Inter fell to their third consecutive home defeat in Serie A and are now eight points adrift of third place.

“Cassano went off, I don’t know what exactly is wrong with him, we’ll see after the tests. Ricky Alvarez played very well in a role that he is not accustomed to and nearly got a third goal. I really liked Inter while we were 3-1 up, as it was one of our best home performances. I saw that as a step forward.

“I don’t think we can still aim for third place. We have lost an ugly game and will try to play every remaining match at our best in Serie A and the CoppaItalia.”

Ranocchia also incredibly missed from a yard with the last kick of the game.